The Kleins Are Back: Calvin’s Little Girl Signs East End Deal

A FOUR-BEDROOM CONTEMPORARY IN WAINSCOTT FOR $3.75 MILLION With her stepmother ensconced at Daddy’s Georgica Pond mansion, Marci Klein, 33, a co-producer of Saturday Night Live , signed a contract to buy a house in Wainscott, L.I., with a $3.75 million price tag in March.

A white contemporary overlooking the ocean and Wainscott Pond off Beach Lane near East Hampton, the four-bedroom house is on two acres and features four bedrooms, three bathrooms and a private pool. The advertisement for the property, listed on iHamptons.com, a Web site, by Paul Brennan of Brennan Realty, boasts “total privacy” and “room for expansion.” Mr. Brennan said he would not comment because the deal is not final. Ms. Klein, who is the president of Saturday Night Live Studios Television, did not return calls.

Ms. Klein, Calvin Klein’s only child, made headlines in 1978 when she was kidnapped at age 11. Her father paid $100,000 in ransom and she was freed after nine hours. She studied at Emerson College for two years, but graduated from Brown University in 1988. These days, the headlines are about Mr. Klein’s plans to sell his brand name or take on a partner. He credits his daughter with coming up with his current advertising campaign featuring musicians like Liz Phair, Foxy Brown and Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth and claimed she and her friends were his inspiration for creating the fragrance, CK One, in 1994.

Neither father nor daughter have had their own place in the Hamptons for a couple of years. Last summer, Mr. Klein rented a house on Flying Point Road in Water Mill, L.I., after he lost the house he owned on West End Road near Georgica Pond in East Hampton to his estranged wife Kelly when they separated in 1996. The couple bought it for $6 million in 1995. Before that they paid $3.6 million for the former Hamptons residence of Juan Trippe, the founder of Pan American World Airways.

CAROLYN MURPHY, CALVIN’S OTHER GIRL, UNLOADS CROSBY ST. LOFT Model Carolyn Murphy, 24, who was tapped as the face of Calvin Klein’s new fragrance, Contradiction, in a new ad campaign on the heels of her screen debut in Barry Levinson’s Liberty Heights last year, sold her SoHo penthouse duplex on March 10.

Ms. Murphy lived in the 3,500-square-foot, two-bedroom co-op loft at 41 Crosby Street, near Broome Street, for two years. She bought it for $1.475 million. It has exposed brick, skylights and a wall made of copper, but only one bathroom. “It has Old World charm and the true loft feeling of SoHo,” said Ms. Murphy’s broker, Linda Krown of Douglas Elliman. It also has a roof deck and a terrace off of the kitchen. The apartment went on the market on Oct. 1 for $2.5 million.

The buyer, also represented by Douglas Elliman, is a businessman. He’s adding another bathroom, said Ms. Krown. She said Ms. Murphy has not purchased a new apartment in the city.

WEST VILLAGE

65 West 13th Street (Greenwich)

One-bed, one-and-a-half bath, 2,700-square-foot condo.

Asking: $1.75 million. Selling: $1.75 million.

Charges: $1,300. Taxes: $1,593.

Time on the market: 10 days.

LOFT RUSH The idea was this: There are a lot of single people in this city getting rich and they’ve got to sleep somewhere. Couples, too. Why not here? The Greenwich, a failed department store being converted to 79 one-bedroom loft-style apartments starting at $465,000, runs from 13th Street to 14th Street along Sixth Avenue. Two new floors that are being built atop the 10-story structure were designed to contain four penthouses each. The sixth through 10th floors have seven apartments each, ranging from 2,800 square feet to about 1,500 square feet. An executive purchased one entire floor for a total of $10 million. On floors two through five, there are nine apartments per floor. The smallest apartment is about 1,000 square feet. Each comes with one or one-and-a-half baths. Urban Outfitters has committed to taking 10,000 square feet on the first floor after the building is fully renovated, which is expected to be sometime this fall. Since the idea began to catch on–80 percent of the apartments have gone into contract–Brown Harris Stevens Residential Sales L.L.C., which was hired to sell the units, has raised the prices four times. Because buyers want more than one unit in order to combine them, so far there are only 70 owners, though 79 apartments will be completed. A businessman signed a contract in mid-March for this apartment, which has southwestern exposures, and ceilings that are 13 feet 7 inches high. Michele Conte, the Brown Harris Stevens broker who is the building’s director of sales, said she worked with the buyer to redesign the space by creating a whole new master bedroom suite and transforming the kitchen, which runs from east to west, into an L shape. “The units are like a canvas, and the buyer completes the picture by designing the space the way he wants,” said Ms. Conte. She said the trader has already hired his architect and designer–even though he won’t officially own the apartment or be able to renovate it until about November.

UPPER WEST SIDE

161 West 61st Street (Alfred)

Three-bed, five-bath, 7,000-square-foot condo.

Asking: $5.75 million. Selling: $5.35 million.

Common charges: $4,200. Taxes: $2,477.

Time on the market: One year.

THERE’S A WATERFALL IN YOUR LIVING ROOM You might say this Greenwich, Conn., couple bought this apartment for their unborn child. But who are they kidding? The first thing they did was to have the floor-to-ceiling cobalt-blue glass sculpture of a waterfall in the living room removed. It had belonged to the previous owner, Michael Palm, an art collector who died about a year and a half ago, whose estate was selling the apartment. “The buyers didn’t have any use for it,” said Laurance Kaiser IV, president of Key-Ventures Realty, about the sculpture that he deemed worth probably as much as the apartment. “There are very few people who need Niagara Falls in their living room.” No fun! The penthouse has eight terraces, 20-foot-high ceilings, a 42-by-50-foot living room, maid’s rooms, a library and a proximity to a certain adult entertainment complex called Lincoln Center. Of course, it is just as close to New York’s largest playground, Central Park.

UPPER EAST SIDE

400 East 59th Street

Two-bed, two-bath, 1,200-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $595,000. Selling: $585,000.

Charges: $1,494; 43 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: Four months.

HELLO, CONRAN’S! A headhunter was so fixated on this neck of the Upper East Side, what with the Bridgemarket (Conran’s, Gustavino’s) opening and a new Bed, Bath & Beyond on its way to the north, that when a friend told her that an apartment was available in this building a couple of blocks away from her old, smaller apartment, she rushed over to the open house. The building, located at First Avenue, was built in 1928 and has a 24-hour doorman. The apartment features a raised living room with an arched entrance, 12-foot-high ceilings, a new kitchen with granite countertops, built-in bookshelves and a fireplace. William Costigan, a broker at Douglas Elliman, said, “The co-op board loved her.” She passed in January and the deal closed on Feb. 24. She moved into her new apartment in early March and is busily painting the off-white walls in bright yellow and tan colors. “She has excellent taste,” said Mr. Costigan, who recently peeked in on the apartment. The sellers are two men who have moved to a bigger apartment in the neighborhood.

CHELSEA

450 West 20 Street

One-bed, one-bath, 650-square-foot co-op.

Asking: $575,000. Selling: $525,000.

Charges: $200; 35 percent tax-deductible.

Time on the market: 10 days.

STILL LIFE IN 650 SQUARE FEET A couple of artists wanted to move from their condo on 48th Street and Second Avenue to Chelsea so they could be closer to their gallery, perhaps to challenge the adage, “Out of sight, out of mind,” where their dealer was concerned. They saw an ad in The New York Times for this itty-bitty co-op on the ground-floor of a town house between Ninth and 10th avenues. They thought the space would be too small, but it is on one of Chelsea’s celebrated seminary blocks. On inspection, they were charmed by the 11-foot-high ceilings, crystal chandelier, two marble fireplaces, bathroom with paneled walls imported from France in the 1920’s, and brand-new marble kitchen. “Once they saw it, size really didn’t matter anymore,” said the broker, Miep van den Hoven from William B. May Company. The couple moved into their new place at the end of January–shortly after a no-hitches meeting with the co-op board. The building has five apartments and no elevator–good thing this unit is on the first floor. The sellers, two men, bought a town house in the East 30’s on Jan. 19.

CARROLL GARDENS

58 Union Street

Five-bed, two-and-a-half bath, four-story brownstone.

Asking: $725,000. Selling: $690,000.

Time on the market: One year.

PH.D.’s WITH GREEN THUMBS A couple of academics moved to the Far East for about a year and rented out the two apartments in this Carroll Gardens duplex brownstone. They left the property in the hands of a contractor, who renovated the top floor. When they returned, they were impressed by his work–especially the brand-new kitchen–but couldn’t afford the bill. They decided it was finally time for them to sell and move to their house in upstate New York. The buyers, a couple of psychologists who had been renting a smaller apartment in the same neighborhood, have decided to keep the top-floor tenant. And instead of having to kick out the other tenant, they hooked him up with their old apartment. Small world; tight market. Deborah Cutler, a sales agent with Harbor View Realty who sold the apartment to the couple of docs, said they will entertain the idea of taking over the whole house some day. “The renter on the top floor gives them an income as well as allowing them to own a beautiful house.” Then there’s the 22-by-40-foot garden. “They’re big gardeners,” said Ms. Cutler. The deal closed on Feb. 4 and the psychologists moved in on March 4.

Correction

Last week, Jerrold Blair was identified as Columbia Records’ vice president of promotions. Mr. Blair is the executive vice president of Columbia Records Group.